I'm missing the NWC a little less now. (long)
Steve Burison
anyway. Got out on a local lake and caught my best bass of the year last
nite! This turned out longer than I thought it would but it was fun
reliving the evening.
Started launching my canoe at 6:00PM on my favorite lake. Beautiful
evening with the wind dying down to a breeze and a pleasant temp in the low
70's with water temp also in the 70's with visibility to about 8'. Decided
to use a leadhead with 5" Kalin grub to work the 10' drop-off that extends
around the edge of this natural lake. I knew from previous evenings that
the faster pace of the jig/grub combo produced some good hits on the fall
and I was interested in working several particular spots more thoroughly
than I had on previous nites.
Things started off quickly with two bass (one dink and one 12") at my first
stop, both hitting the grub just before it reached bottom. Things slowed
down and I switched to a senko for an additional dozen casts over the same
area. I switched back to the 5" grub and then started getting crappie or
bluegill hits so I moved to my next target a drop-off right at the edge of a
large 3 to 4' deep weedy flat.
I was sure that this was a great area cuz of a couple of 15" bass I caught
on a previous trip and so I methodically worked my way along the drop-off
edge keeping my canoe in about 11 ft of water to insure I was just past the
edge of the drop-off. I picked up another small bass quickly after about 10
casts and continued along the drop for about 100 ft with frequent hits from
panfish but not any bass.
Frustrated at the lack of results from what I had been sure was a surefire
area I move to a third area where the 10ft depth matched the outside edge of
a weed line less than 20 out from shore. From there the bottom quickly
drops to 18' and then out further to some of the deepest water in the lake.
First couple of casts produced panfish hits. Man, I was developing a killer
pattern for crappie and bluegills! Moved about 20 ' and started again
methodically working the area this time with the canoe right on the weedline
allowing me to cast outward and parallel to the weeds. By this time the sky
was turning great shades of red from the approaching sunset and the local
population canada geese and ducks were moving out onto the main body of the
lake as they do each evening at about this time. I continued casting the
area both deeper and parallel to the weed edge looking for the speed and
depth where bass could be holding. I was thinking of moving again when I
got a wakeup call as I swam my lure back towards the canoe. The line just
barely "ticked", I quick reeled the slack and set the hook.
I'm getting pretty good at working with this jig and grub combo so after the
first hookset I set the hook two more times in quick succession. I was a
little surprised that after three hard hooksets the fish hadn't moved much.
That surprise was replaced quickly by a whole different one as the bass
figured out that he was hooked and took off towards the deeper water with my
grub firmly in his jaw. For the first couple of seconds I figured that I'd
quickly stop him cause I was using 14lb test on a casting rig. The bass had
other ideas. He pulled about 10ft of line off in the blink of an eye and
turned the canoe around by ninety degrees on his first run. I was pretty
clear that this guy was a little stronger than average by this point, so in
spite of the adrenaline rush I remembered to back off on the drag slightly
and focused on anticipating his next move. Two more runs to deeper water, a
pause, and then a reverse run back towards the weed edge.
This was white knuckle time for me cause I got a glimpse of a really big
largemouth bass tail churning the water as he went past the canoe again.
Another quick 90 degree bass powered pivot of the canoe and the short range
battle started. I caught a quick look as he came briefly closer to the
canoe, a good one. Three more strong runs and I got my hand on his jaw
lifted him from the water and caught my breath. Beautiful! Twenty-two and
one-half inch largemouth with beautiful coloring my biggest this year!
I got him unhooked, measured and quickly back into the water. He wasn't
moving quickly after I set him back in the lake so I spent about a minute
holding on the jaw and gently moving the fish through the water till he
perked up and swam off towards deeper water.
What a great nite!
Shawn
What flavor grub were you throwing?
Shawn
"Steve Burison" <sbur...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:chmm7.4944$d86.4...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
RichZ
I'm on my way out the door and to the river now.
RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing
Brad C.
Brad
shep
"Steve Burison" <sbur...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:chmm7.4944$d86.4...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Steve Burison
Just writing about it was fun. That was one of the best colored bass I've
seen.
The grub was a kalin 5" clear with silver flakes. It's been real reliable
for about the last two weeks or so fished on a standup head jig.
Steve
"Shawn" <nana...@visi.net> wrote in message
news:grnm7.50$p3....@sydney.visi.net...
Craig Baugher
the structure, cover, water temp, and presentation so that you can duplicate
your efforts when the conditions match?
--
Craig
Shawn
confused....the grubs are green on one side, gray on the other (as opposed
to green over gray). Whassup wit dat?
Did I get a bad bag ?
Shawn
"Steve Burison" <sbur...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:axum7.6090$5r.5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
RichZ
methods confine the lamination the plane of the seam. So twist tail style
worms/grubs that are laminated are laminated side-to-side, since the seam
must run on the vertical plane with twist tail style baits.
RichZŠ
www.richz.com/fishing
Shawn
as to why they would orient the twisty tail so as to create a bait with
two different looks, in this case green on one side, pearl gray on the
other. Hard body baits are dark over light, i.e., chrome w/black back, and
even a Zoom Fluke in Arkansas Shiner is colored dark over light.
Kalin's two color lamination process seems to create a bait contradicting
natures coloring scheme. Will this matter to the fish? Should this matter
to me ? I guess I'll find out on the water.
Shawn
"RichZ" <r...@richz.com> wrote in message
news:VA.0000034...@richz.com...
> RichZ©
> www.richz.com/fishing
>
Joe Haser
catches more Bass than any other on Lake George, in Fl.
"Shawn" <nana...@visi.net> wrote in message
news:djQm7.150$p3....@sydney.visi.net...
RichZ
edge. It's not Kalin, it's ALL injected, twist tail baits in laminated
color patterns.
RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing
Steve Burison
Here's what I think I know. Let's see if I can pull this together.
Cover - the cover was pads about 4" in diameter reaching out from shore to
almost the 10' break. Actual depth at the pad edge was 8'. Extending out
from the pads were submerged milfoil which did extend to the break.
Structure - The lake is a natural formation with the deep water near the
site that I got the bass. A breakline at about 10' runs around the
circumference of the lake, sometimes gradually sloping away to deeper water
and sometimes quickly dropping to deeper water. I was fishing the deeper
end of the lake. What I noticed about the is that the 10' break was about
20 to 30 feet from shore and that the water continued to drop off rapidly
beyond the break to a 18' depth by about 60' from shore. Nothing in the way
of wood or rock structure showing on the depthfinder. The shoreline showed
a somewhat rocky slope that was steeper and longer than other areas of the
lake. There were shallower flats off to each side of this area, probably
within 50 to either side.
Wind and temp - Air temps were in the high 70's with water temps within a
couple of degrees of that. The wind was out of the southwest during most of
the day at 5 to 10 mph and the weather pattern was stable for the previous 3
days. Time of day was evening, and the light conditions were approaching
dusk.
Presentation - The presentation was swimming a 5" Kalin grub on a leadhead
parallel to the pad cover, just inside the break. Steady swimming retrieve,
just above the top of the submerged milfoil.
What can I use as a repeatable pattern? Working the breakline where cover
and breakline converge. Look for deeper water adjacent to the breakline and
stay in the neighborhood of the deep end of the lake. Pay attention to wind
direction and maybe try for this combination of structure and cover on the
windy side of the lake or structures.
Craig, how did I do? Is there something that stood out for you that I
missed?
I tried a different lake last nite using some of the elements above and had
good success. I looked for cover with at least 6' of water under the pads
that was near deeper water. I tried swimming a grub and leadhead without
luck and then switched to a t-rig grub and then t-rig tube without pegging
the 1/8 oz sinker when that slower falling bait began to cause hits. Seems
like the pattern is more for a slower falling/moving bait vs the faster drop
I was getting from a heavier leadhead.
Thanks for the question.
Steve
"Craig Baugher" <caba...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:itvm7.12208$Uf1.1...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Craig Baugher
cannot repeat them. Why? because they found the pattern for that day with
those conditions, but think it will work every time and when it doesn't
forget about it. Instead of noting all the conditions that made that
pattern work at that moment so that when the conditions are right again they
have a great starting point. If everytime an angler has success and notes
it and the condition and does this often enough, pretty soon they are going
to have at least one winning or success pattern for every type of condition.
That is why putting time on the water is so important. In the off season
(like here in Michigan when the water freezes over) the angler can then
build a cross reference chart by Water Color, Current, Wind Direction, Cloud
Cover, Water Temp, Season, etc.
I use a Three Ring Binder with section tabs. I label my binder "WINNING
PATTERNS"
I have a Tab for each of the follow: Location (GPS), Season, Water Temp,
Water Color, Wind Direction, Cover, Structure, Current, Water Depth
For each tab divider I have a column sheet that starts with the tab name in
the first column. Followed by the other pattern factors: Example: tab
name - "Location" so column one is labeled "Location" followed by Season,
Water Temp, Water Color, Wind, Sky, Cover, Structure, Time, Pattern (taking
up 4 or 5 columns).
Example:
Column #1:LOCATION 42.35.607 x 82.46.483 (Lake St.Clair)
Column #2: Season = Spring - Early April
Column #3: W Temp = 42°
Column #4: W Color = Clear
Column #5: Wind = 5-10 - NE
Column #6: Sky = Clear
Column #7: Cover = Weedbeds & Rocks in sandy bottom.
Column #8: Structure = 8ft Channel slope to 3.5 ft shallow flat
Column #9: Time = 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Columns #10-14: Pattern = Position boat on North side of Red Buoy #2 about
30' from channel break. Use One Drift Sock located in center of boat. Use
7' foot Med Spinning Rod spooled with 8 pound fluorocarbon line. Attach
3-1/2" Smoke/Blue Flake or Dark Melon/Copper tube with 1/16 ounce ball jig.
Let tube settle to the bottom and twitch it off the bottom and then it
settle again while in the shallows and then drag the tube as boat drifts
across channel from Red buoy #2 to about 100 feet south of Green buoy #1.
Column #1:LOCATION 42.35.607 x 82.46.483 (Lake St.Clair)
Column #2: Season = Spring - Early April
Column #3: W Temp = 42°
Column #4: W Color = Clear
Column #5: Wind = 5-10 - NE
Column #6: Sky = Cloudy
Column #7: Cover = Weedbed & Rocks in sandy bottom
Column #8: Structure = 9ft Channel slopes up to 3.5 ft shallow flat
Column #9: Time = 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Columns #10-14: Pattern = Position boat on South side of Red Buoy #4 along
channel break. Keep troll motor on constant at slowest speed necessary to
hold position. Use 6' foot Med Trigger Rod spooled with 17 pound
fluorocarbon line and 6.2:1 reel. Attach 5" Chrome/Black/Orange Belly
suspending (slow sinker) or Perch color jerkbait. Cast the jerk out, reel
it down until it just touches the young weeds or rocks and let settle in for
a 4-5 count, then give it a nice jerk and let it settle again. Most strike
come as lure pops out of the weeds or bounces off rocks.
Thing is if I was in another similar lake under the same conditions, I would
look for such an area and try what has worked for me in the past. Quite
often it will work perfectly and when it doesn't, a lot of times it only
requires a slight change in presentation. Example: A pattern I developed
in Belleville Lake for early spring paid off fantastically when I fished a
similar type of lake (Patoka) in Indiana while in a tournament.
--
Craig